1315 Dissimilar.

I had a headache on Saturday. It wasn’t one of my worst, but it left part of my forehead sore. It’s almost like I pulled a muscle in my eyebrow. There must be a crossed wire around there because when I touch it I can feel it inside my nose. The body is weird sometimes.

I unlocked all but one hero in State Of Decay: Breakdown. I would have done all of them, but I gave away all my shotguns before checking the list. One of them requires 50 shotgun kills. Not a very hard task, but I hate dealing with shotguns because they are loud and slow. They are also most effective at close range, which doesn’t suit me either. Level 6 is not much fun. You really get an idea for how well you know the combat system, and what have you, but it’s right on the edge of being too intense for me to actually enjoy playing. It started me near the campgrounds, which is really far from the better base locations. The escort mission for the hero in the hazmat suit spawned a little further north on Mount Tanner, which is just the worst place to go late in the game. I hiked up there as fast as I could, so I’d be done escorting Walter back home before dark. There were ferals all over, in addition to a few fat bastards and a constant steam of police and army zombies. The resources are also much more scarce. Typical locations for getting an early foothold on the map are barren.
It was a very long walk to town. I didn’t see a single vehicle until I was almost there. I was attacked by 3 ferals, but had an open enough battlefield to keep from getting pounced on and injured. Fatties I just walked way around. They aren’t dangerous unless you get cornered by one. If I don’t have to fight a fat bastard I just ease on by. The redistribution of zombies really tweaks how you handle them. A swat zombie by itself is the weakest special infected. It just can’t be shot down. In early levels it’s rare to see more than a couple in a group. Now they come at you in gangs. They can’t be killed with the leg sweep move, only knocked down. They also tend to run and chase after you now for much longer. It really tires you out taking down a large group with 5 or 6 swat guys sprinkled in. They were a problem before when I was going to the headshot achievement. I’d get two or three in a row then I’d target an armored zombie that I couldn’t tell was one. It made that achievement the hardest one to complete. (Assuming that the shotgun one isn’t harder than I think it is…) Anyway, groups of swat guys mixed with ferals, screamers, or whatever, are way more daunting than what levels one through 5 was throwing at me. It’s pretty bleak.
My survivors are maxed out except for the new guy and Micky Wilkerson. I lost a powerhouse near the end of level 5 to a fatty, so I had an empty spot open for a new face. I took him so I’d have a marksman with the powerhouse ability. He’s going to spend a lot of time in the watchtower. Assuming we have a lot of time. We may not last long enough to build one. I can’t find construction material anywhere and everyone is getting sick. I may come back to the simulation having killed off some of my survivors. Sickness usually isn’t as big a worry as the zombies, but I can’t get a medical facility up and running. A group of neighbors spawned right next door to my chosen base though, so they might help out with the external enemies. I can also use them as a dumping ground for useless gear. I freed up a lot of space already. Mostly weaker guns. I’m swimming in ammunition, but can’t get the influence needed to actually get it out of the supply locker…
I actually planned ahead when I moved on to level 6. I built up a lot of influence then loaded my players up with expensive gear. Then, when the new level started, I dumped it all back in for a quick influence boost. I forgot to do that at the start of level 5 and got taught a harsh lesson indeed.

By the way, Patrons, I wrote the next part of Wandering King, it’ll be available asap.

Teen Corner

The Teen has elected not to write because everyone in the world hates her and it has made her morose. Watch this space for further developments.

41 Comments

Tell The Teen that most of the world doesn’t hate her.
(Most humans don’t know of her existence.)
In fact, most of the people that know of her on this site don’t hate her. So she should be on the plus side, overall.

Yeah I was about to say that most people don’t even know she exists. And many would probably like her if they knew of her existence.

So cheer up. You are small and insignificant in the eyes of the void, so you might as well be happy in spite of it.

That’s about what my Mom used to tell me when I said everyone in the world hated me. “Not everyone in the world knows you well enough to hate you. Yet.” Now I know whence I inherited my sarcastic humor.

Yes Reggie! Rebel against the dark side!…Of couse this IS Thomas. When things aren’t going according to plan they’re still going according to plan. Hrrrmm?…I don’t know what to think of this yet.

Dear me. Is Thomas…surprised?

Nah. This is just a very interesting development. If what I’ve gathered from Thomas these past few pages are accurate, he’s not the kind to put all his eggs in one basket. He’s got ideas purposely kept vague to deal with every eventuality. After all, I think it was Eisenhower who said, and I probably paraphrase, ‘Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable’.

Im feeling really good about Reggie now. The way you have drawn him after his talk with Brooksie makes him feel like a completely different person.

Oooo…so did Brooke undo all Thomas was trying to do with Reggie or was this all part of Thomas’ plan all along? :o

Considering that he stated his intentions already, this isn’t part of the original plan. Although I wouldn’t discount the possibility of him taking credit for Jolene Brooks’ child-like wiles.

Thats if he told Ed his true intentions from the beginning…

Though I think Jo may have finally knocked sense into him and may get him to come out of his snobbish shell and just be himself rather than the rude prick he masked himself to be.

Even if it wasn’t part of the plan, it is definitely a positive outcome, and thus a win in the end.

Yeah, I feel the end goal was to get Reggie outa antisocial funk, Thomas could try to steer him his way, but most probably won’t be displeased by a bit different, but still development.

I don’t hate the teen. I think she’s figuring out her place in the world as we all are. All I’m going to say is is that she should treat people kindly and don’t judge them for their faults. She sounds like she’s doing well! I hope things stay cheerful for both you and her.

Oh I forgot to mention the little saying that gets me through times where I think everyone hates me. “You can be the sweetest peach in the world but someone will still hate peaches”. Basically do you best and forget the rest! Haha
I check the comic everytime it should be out. It’s so entertaining!

On that saying: yeah, painful but true!

I find that the best I can strive for is to not hate myself (preferably through taking the right actions/making the right choices, but when that fails, through forgiveness and making good follow up actions). Then, at least one person doesn’t hate me: the person with the best knowledge of what I’ve done, the person I spend the most time around, and a person whom I should try to respect.

Teen: I’m sorry. That sounds rough. I hope it feels better soon.

I share my fellow readers’ opinion. The teen seems to be a fairly decent person. Of course, I tend to look for the good in people more than not. But she can always rely on us for a kind word.

Ey, Teen, head up Chica, you’ll be alright. I’ve been there, and if there’s anything that you can take from a random internet person, it’s that though you’ve never met me nor I you, you seem like an alright person, and only the angriest of people hate alright people like yourself xD

Crave, I’m really liking Reggie more and more. Also, tell your cuz that it’ll be alright. The real life male version of Brooksie says so lol

What’s this? Character development for Reggie? Yays!
And the teen is feeling down? Oh noes! We don’t hate the teen! Truly! I just had an “everybody hates me” few days myself and I’m WAY past being a teen. Physically, anyways. Mentally, on the other hand…They’re not toys, they’re action figures, dammit!

Ahem. When I’m having one of those days, I go for chocolate.

Chin up Teen, Im not to long out of highschool and my teens so I remember feeling like that a lot, I was a particular kind of breed of moody and self/absorbed, but once I got my own head out of my arse I realized a lot of the time I let my darker moods color everything I saw and make things worse for myself. Things like this arent ever as bad as they look and theres always someone out there whose willing to listen and spare a smile(in fact Teen Corner gives you a great source for such people).

My advice, have a read through for some positive comments here, take some free time to yourself to do what you like to do and drink some hot coco(I dont care if youre not cold, Hot Coco helps everything!)

To The Teen:

Things always seem darkest before the dawn. Your school years are pretty much the wee hours of morning for your life, and graduation is kind of like sunrise. Teenagers can be some of the meanest, most hateful people you’ll ever know…But they can also be some of the nicest. Cling to those whenever possible, and ignore the bad ones. They’ll get what’s theirs sooner or later, trust me. Once you’re out of high school, things get a lot better, as far as people giving you grief. Just hang in there, and it /will/ get better.

I’d suggest that the teen develops a hobby that she can channel her fears into. Like baking or beer making. Yeah, she’s underage, but if it were like my rural dump when I was her age, most everyone there already has a drinking problem.

Aww, Teen! Don’t be morose! I like you! I take back every bad thing I said about you, which if I remember correctly is nothing :)

One of these things is not like the other…

Erm, sorry. It’s nice seeing Reggie act like an adult instead of a self-centered, sniveling twit. He’s not like Thomas, but he’s not the jerk he was early in the script. Maybe he’ll come out of this his own Boothe.

You do such expressive faces. You can clearly see him with a rather curious “Oh?” in that last panel. (With undertones of either “Really?” or “What makes you say that?”)

What circumstances caused the Teen to assume that everyone in the world hates Her?

When one is feeling strong emotions is the best time to write / draw / paint / endeavour artistically…
It is when masterpieces are created.

If it feels weird, Crave, stop touching yourself…

Reggie has been growing just a tiny tiny bit every so many interesting conversations and events he has had with the others but he was always pretty much him afterwards for over half of the comic. Nina definitely shook something loose with her magic back in their competition. He’s been growing much more noticeably with every event or major conversation since.

Yeah, that’s not super insightful or new and I wouldn’t have bothered sharing but mostly I’m here to let the teen know I don’t hate the tiny piece of herself she has shared and am grateful she chose to share it with me.

I DON’T HATE YOU THE TEEN! And it sounds like none of the other smart alecks here do either though a few of them chose a round about way to say it…

Thanks for all the positive comments peeps I’m just having some off times lately but I’ll probably write on the next post. My mission now is to find chocolate because someone mentioned it in the comments and now I want it!

I seldom get headaches but when they hit *WOW* they suck. It doesn’t help that I am allergic to every painkiller other than Tylenol.

My headaches are mostly asthma/allergy related, so when I see the familiar aura appear that signals a migraine I usually pop an epinephrine tablet. It’s essentially what you’d inject in a case of anaphylaxis, just way less intense. The corresponding increase in blood flow blunts the effects of the root cause of my headache.

Everyone is different, so this may be way off base. But I’ve never heard anyone give this advice, but the method works for me. Can’t hurt anyway- unless you have a serious heart condition, opening your blood vessels isn’t harmful in any way.

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